How to Successfully Test Citrix StoreFront Beacons Inside a Remote Desktop Session

Description

This article describes how to successfully test the Citrix StoreFront Beacons functionality with Citrix Receiver 3.1 (Standard) or later when connecting to workstations using a Remote Desktop session (RDP).

By default, a configured Citrix Receiver 3.1 (Standard) or later with Beacons and store(s) always falls into the internal network location if you are connecting over RDP to the workstation. Even if the workstation is located in a different network that cannot reach the store URL – such as https://StoreFront.domain.com/Citrix/Store, Citrix Receiver 3.1 (or later) still allocates the workstation as internal versus external.

Note: Beacons are meant to be used when trying to access the Store using Citrix Receiver. Beacons are not applicable if users access the store from the web browser using Receiver for Web. For more information on beacons, refer to Citrix Documentation - Configure beacon points. The following is an extract from this Citrix Documentation page:

"If the internal beacon point is accessible, this indicates that the user is connected to the local network. However, if Citrix Receiver cannot contact the internal beacon point and receives responses from both the external beacon points, this means that the user has an Internet connection but is outside the corporate network. Therefore, the user must connect to desktops and applications though NetScaler Gateway. When the user accesses a desktop or application, the server providing the resource is notified to provide details of the NetScaler Gateway appliance through which the connection must be routed. This means that the user does not need to log on to the appliance when accessing the desktop or application."

The following two behaviors are observed:

Users will not be able to start applications even though the applications can be seen from Citrix Receiver: Error: Could not start app. There was a problem contacting “<storeName>”.
After executing the provisioning file (for example, receiverconfig.cr), users will receive the “Add Apps” message on Citrix Receiver, but no applications will be available from the application catalog list:

Requirements

Citrix Receiver 3.1 (Standard) or later
Citrix StoreFront 1.0 or later
Access Gateway 5, 9.3 or 10

Note: Ensure you have a store, configured with Remote Access enabled, to test this functionality.

Instructions

The following workaround allows you to test the Beacons functionality for external access to the store(s) inside an RDP session:

Caution! Refer to the Disclaimer at the end of this article before using Registry Editor.

Open the Registry Editor.
- For 32-bit machines, access HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\Receiver\
- For 64-bit machines, go to this location: _LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Citrix\Receiver\. (If the Receiver key does not exist, create it).

Create a new key called SRSettings. Inside SRSettings, create a DWORD called NetworkingUnderTSForSRAllowed.
Set the value to 1.
Close the Registry Editor and test.
Example: After creating the registry key:

Environment

Caution! Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that might require you to reinstall your operating system. Citrix cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk. Be sure to back up the registry before you edit it.

Issue/Introduction

This article describes how to successfully test the StoreFront Services beacons using Citrix Receiver 3.1 (Standard) inside a Remote Desktop Session (RDP).

Additional Information

For more information on Citrix StoreFront, refer to Citrix Documentation - StoreFront 3.0.

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